Technical Help from Tools
Good habits avoid problems, but sometimes technical help saves the day.

Virus Scanner - Be sure you have a virus-scanner running on your home computer, and update it frequently (weekly).  Viruses can ruin your files, or even wreck your computer.  You can download a good free virus scanner at :  http://www.free-av.com .  It's free to use and has free weekly updates that are easy to download.

Firewall - If you are connected to the Internet, you must use a firewall.  This is a program that stops bad programs like worms from sneaking into your computer and making it run slower (or not at all).  Windows XP has a built-in firewall, but you must activate it - the standard setting is disabled (?) !  Many people use a 3rd party solution like Zone Alarm from www.zonelabs.com  (it's free and easy to install, with free updates).

Disk Maintenance - Windows has two accessories for keeping your-  hard-disk in good shape:
   -  Disk Cleanup gets rid of temporary files and other left-overs
             that can slow down your disk drive
   -  Defragment packs files together for faster access - do this once a month

Help Line - Many software companies have telephone help lines.  These are good, but you need to register the software if you want to get free help.  Do register new software - you won't regret it.

Safe Mode - If your computer won't start (boot up), try holding the [F8] key and then select "Start in Safe-Mode".  This will start the computer without loading all the extra programs you have installed.  This will usually get the computer started, and then you may need to do some repairs, like running a virus scanner or uninstalling the last program you installed (the one that broke your computer).

Free Utilities - There are lots and lots of free utilities available, for all kinds of tasks.  Many of them solve common problems.  Here are a few useful ones:
     WinZip - to unpack Zip Archives, for example software downloads
     RealPlayer - a multimedia player needed for some streaming media
     SpyBot - kills Internet worms, spyware, and other annoyances
     RegClean (Microsoft) - clean up the system registry
     XnView - very simple photo viewer and editing tool
     Java - you need this if you want to run Java applets
     .NET Framework - Microsoft's newest system support - you might
                                need this to run some new applications
     GraphCalc - a graphing calculator for the computer
     Gadwin Printscreen - take pictures of your computer screen

If that free stuff sound interesting, click here to get      [Free Software]